Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Current po ints leader Tony Hendon gets the jump on the pack at the start. Hendon finished second overall, while Fritz Kadlec (16) took third. I Husqvarna 's Ed Lojak came from behind and captured his first National hare scrambles v ictory of the year. AMA National Championship Hare Scrambles Series: Round 5 Lojak captures the Wild Hare National By Clay Light OLYMPIA, WA, MAY 8 National Cross Couri tryChamp ion Ed Loj ak su rvived 72 miles of ru gged, mountain ous terrain to take th e overall and 250cc A class win s at Seafair City M.C.'s Wild Hare National at th e ThurV Park. Husqvarna 250-mounted Lojak's . ' . ' wm came after beating current ston County OR series points leade r, Tony H endon, riding an ATK, winner of the first ' three rounds, by a ma rgin of oneminute 52 seco nds, roughly threequarters of a mil e. While not being quite as climactic a t the£inish as th e Shasta, California , round, th e ac tion for' the, lead was hot a nd heavy for th e first la p as Loj ak worked h is way through heavy opening lap traffic after suffering from a poor start, and traded leads with series fro nt -ru nners H endon a nd Fritz Kadl ec. L oj ak' s win ma rked the th ird di ffer ent w i n ner in th e se r ies . Met zeler /Sm ith / Sp ect ro /Tsubaki / Hi-Point/Cagiva North Am eri ca / Husqvarna-sponsored Lojakaccorn plish ed hi s feat set earlier in th e day by winni ng the 250cc A class a nd bea ti ng H endon. Lojak said, "It's abo ut tim e I wo n one of th ese (hare scra mb les). This was the best I' ve r id den ye t in h are scra m b les ' action ." For Loja k, of Tarent um , Pennsylva n ia , it was hi s seco n d overa ll wi n in as man y weeks after winning la st week 's Fireball 100 Cross Country in his home sta te. Finishing second was Hendon, som e two-minutes a head of thirdpl ace 'finisher Kadlec, riding the Bel- R a y/ Sm i th / Ma lco lm Smith/ Shoei/ T su ba kilYa m a ha Support ' YZ250, second l 50cc A, wh ile fourth went th e way of Hond~ ~OO jock ey Scott Su~mers, second In ~he O pen A class. Fifth overa ll a nd first pl ace in th e Four-Stroke A class was Husqv arn a 5 l 0-mo u n ted David Rh odes , a loca l favori teo 'Fo llowing Rhodes across th e finish line was Suzuki RM 250-mounted Kevin Bethards, also a Wash ingt on product, while Canadi an Guy Perrett (Kawa saki 500) a nd Yamaha rider Sta n Loj ak fill ed the top eight positions in th e A class, all of whom were a full hip up on th e competitio n due to the fact that th e event was run for three hours and th e pack was well spread o ut; th e top eig h t beat the 2:00 p.m . cutoff and therefore had to make a n ex tra circu it of the 11.8 mile co ur se. Of th e to tal 136 en tra nts, 39 riders .were competing in th e A class, wh ich was staged a t 12 o 'cloc k in a single dead -en gine wave. After a long halfm ile drag race off the start, th e field ent ered for a comp lete lap of th e Thurston County ORV Park's motocross track; at th a t point it was Yamaha YZ250-armed Dua ne Co nner leading Perrett, H endon , a nd Yamaha', rid er Kadl ec. At th e en d of th e MX lap, Perrett had used his Pro MX expertise to overtake both Hendon a nd Conner, holdin g a slim advantage as the field entered the dens ely wooded Capitol Forest. Perrett's lead , however; was short lived as th e ' Kawasaki rider ' fro m Kamloops, Bri tish Col um bia, slid ou t on one ofthe severa l rain-soaked make u p and decided I' d save myself tra ils and allowed Hendon to ta ke for the Michigan (ISDE Qualifier) the lead. . race." At this point Hendon, Kadlec and Lojak's time of 3 l -minutes , the Lojak and Husqvarna tea mmate day 's fastest lap, came at the end of Mark Hyde, fought for the lead: lap four where he had a little under Halfway into the first lap Lojak took · two -minutes over Hendon, who li ke th e lead from ,H endon , passing the Kadlec, would kick in the afterAT K rider in a gn arly, rock-lined ' burners for the remaining two laps uphill section of the 11 .8 mile course. in their attempt at catching Lojak. T he order at th e end of lap one read: The day's premier battle erupted Lojak, H endon, Kadlec, Bellingon lap five in a war waged for the ham , Washington 's, John Neilsen fourth position between four-stroke (Kawasa ki 500), and Summers, who pi lots Summers and Rhodes, ' who ran in side the top five. Stan Lojak, were six-seconds apart. Rhodes made Conner, Bethards and Rhodes were up ground o n Summers on the a little less than a minute behind the motocross course, in which he rides lead ers, 'a ll locked in a spectacular frequently, but once back into the bar-to-bar battle for sixth; Perrett ran woods; Summers pu lled away. It • 10th. ' wasn't the last time the two wo uld The order i n the top three battle, however, as Rhodes would remained th e same as the leaders again ride an incredible motocross ca me around the MX course and la p later to close thedeficit, entered th e finish line checkpoint. After building up as much as a Loj ak , H endon and Kadlec were onetwo-minute 48-second lead ' nearing three, but Nielsen , a nd Hyde, who th e sixth and final lap , Kadlec's ran ins ide th e top five on lap one, margin shrunk as he left the finish were nowhere in sight. Neilsen, who line checkpoint for the next-to-last had high hopes of finishing in the time. H endon' had whittled Lojak's top three in front of his home crowd, lead to under two minutes and rode dropped o ut, moving Summers and the fastest lap of th e motocross Rhod es up a notch to fourth and course, a nd with one lap remaining, fifth. set out after Lojak, hoping that the Husqvarna pilot would ' enco unter The first official DNF was Hyde, who was "feeling good" prior to th e problems along the way so that the A cla ss staging, pumped for a top Kentuckian (H endo n) could net win finish , but like Nielsen, his da y cam e number four of the series, which was not to be. to a premature halt on lap one. Hyde coll ided with Kadlec while battling Kadlec came around in 'third, also for positions. " H e cu t me off com ing closing th e gap, but it was Summers . a nd Rhodes ' battle that had the out of a tu rn ," said Hyde. " I go t . going aga i n, but just as soon, sp ectators buzzing, 'e speciall y his a nothe r guy came a long and ' just parents, who watched nerv ously as crashed into me, sending me down th e du o ent ered the Capitol Forest an em ba n kme nt . I just decid ed to call for th e final time. Bethards" Perrett it a day," H yde added. and Open A rider Stan Lojak ran At th e end of three laps Lojak had sixth through eigh th, a nd were the bui lt up a one-min ute 3 l-second lead only riders to make a sixth circui t over H endon with Hendon mainof the co urse. . tai n ing a two-min ute advan tage on Lojak took' the checkered £lag for Kadlec; Sum mers and Rhodes had a th e win at th e co mp letio n of six laps lo t of gro und to make up a t this point of competition, so me three-hours as th e pa ir were some two-mi n u tes and 24-minutes later, for his first win back of th ird pl ace rider Kadl ec. of the five ro unds in the series thus Ni elsen coas ted into the pits while far, and was ela ted with th e win the maj o rit y of the riders were on com ment ing: " It was a reall y good their fourth lap after failing to make course, th ey did a great job with the a comp lete ' circu it of th e cour se. la yout and th eir idea of running the Nie lsen suc ked up 'wha t would be a A and B riders separa tely mad e for fata l amount of water in hi s Kawaone of th e most enjoyable races this saki's air-bo x in one of two large season for me. Running separa te wa ter holes, and was deepl y disapclasses ends all of th e problems , su ch pointed . wi th not finishing, espeas bottlenecks. It was th e best I've cia lly since he had a lo t of local race felt all yea r," sai d Lojak, fans. "The re's just someth ing about Following Lojak across the finish , these hare scramb les," said Nielsen. o ne -m in u te 52-seco nds ba ck was " I haven 't had much luck, with the H endon, who wasn't disappointed excep tion of th e Shasta ' round. I with his second-place finish , but probably cou ld have finished, but happy to finish. "I got some points would have had a lot of ground to out of it, " Hendon sai d. "That's the

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